Not Everything About Racism is Racist

by Matt Gauntt

I was fascinated to see the Illinois Messiah's retort to what has happened in the past week regarding racial comments, and the discovery of his pastor's inflammatory comments (no need to hyper link these, just see the various post here at IR).

"I noticed over the last several weeks that the forces of division have started to raise their ugly heads again. And I'm not here to cast blame or point fingers because everybody, you know, senses that there's been this shift," Obama said.

Many of us have been highly critical of the Illinois Messiah's association with one who is clearly a race baiting and incendiary prophet in Reverend Wright.  The distortions and lies that this "man of the cloth" have spewed are wrong for the country and wrong for his parishioners.  I am glad to hear that Sen. Obama has rejected those comments.  At least it is a start.

However, for the Senator to imply that the reason that these comments by his "Spiritual Mentor" (Sen. Obama's words, not mine) are now being examined is in someway racial motivated is loony.  Then again, the left clearly does not know how to read what us conservatives say about race as evidenced by this response to my article last week.  Note to the left:  if you are going to mischaracterize my article, at least spell my name right.

Over and over again, we have seen politicians and political figures that are criticized, immediately jump to a conclusion of racism for the criticism.  Sen. Obama did this early this year in South Carolina in response to Monica Lewinsky's former boyfriend calling Barack Obama a "fairy tale".  We've seen similar cries of "racism" in many other cases

• Hurricane Katrina:  The US Government was blamed for the problem because the City was largely black.  No, the problem had nothing to do with an incompetent Mayor, infighting between the various agencies that oversaw the levee system, a clueless governor or a political appointee in FEMA who had no clue how to respond.  Yep, all racism.
• Reverend Wright blamed AIDS and the prison population on racism.
• Any sincere conversation about homeland security and the protection of our borders almost always degenerates into accusing those that want our borders protected of being racists.  Never mind that our porous borders pose a real opportunity for terrorists to enter our country.
• In a similar vein, Lawrence Summers, the highly regarded economist from the Clinton Administration, was ousted at the University of Harvard for posing a question regarding why there were not enough women in science and math.  For just asking the question, Summers was labeled as a sexist.
• There is even blames of racism in the NBA.  I mean, come on, is this the most important thing that a professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania has to do with his time?

At some point in the future, it would be nice to be able to have thorough, open and unbiased conversations on important matters that confront both our country and our everyday lives without opponents of those ideas immediately yelling "racism".  We have a society that is confronting a global war on terrorism, a faltering economy, huge changes in demographics with the retirement of the "baby-boom" generation, supposed global warming, energy concerns and dozens of other VERY complicated and  important issues.  If we are going to come to rational decisions about these important issues, we cannot degenerate immediately into using incendiary comments such as "racist", "bigot", "homophobe" or "sexist".  On the other hand, we as conservatives should not be threatened by those that are intellectually dishonest in debates by using those labels to try and shut us up.  We have to continue to use our brains, our passions and factually based reason to win the arguments beyond the simple and naive musings of the main stream media.

Comments

[tfb]

Matt:

All this election is about is the exoneration of the white man from the charge of racism. Obama's election will not stop the charges of racism, but they will inoculate white America from the guilt effect. My prediction is the liberal black racism card will continue to be played with drastically diminished results. No longer will white America shrink from accusations of racism but will proudly counter with "I voted for Obama" and dismiss the accusation out of hand. The white guilt effect days are numbered.

This is what Obama's election is about. It is too bad he is blowing it with his racist, American hating wife, his slimy political associations, and his racist Pastor.

I figure this election to be the year of the angry white male. We get to inoculate ourselves against either the poor oppressed woman B.S. or the disadvantaged minority tripe. Personally - I love it.

And we get the added advantage of seeing liberal black America's political clout annihilated by the amnesty and family reunification policies of one of their own. Or we get to see the feminist dragged back to the kitchen by the knuckle scrapping antics of the culture of machismo Senorita Clinton will usher in when she gives a path to citizenship to the hoard of Latino chauvinistic pigs currently ravaging our culture. I am going to be laughing my rear off watching it happen.

tfb

[jorod]

To see how absurd this argument about racism has become, see Larry Elder's book "10 Things You Can't Say in America."

[tfb]

In regard to:

"10 Things You Can't Say in America" by Larry Elder

I really was disappointed in this book. It is funny, it is accurate, but of his 10 list, most of them are mainstream convention,

For example #6:

The Media have a liberal bias.

Or #8:

Republicans and Democrats - there really is a difference

On these two points, does anyone doubt it, isn't this rather common fodder among conservatives?

I believe Larry Elders makes two points that are very worthy of attention:

#1 Blacks are more racist than whites

and

#2 White condescension to blacks is no less damaging than black racism

In summary, not a bad book, but not the earth shattering revelation you might be lead to believe based on the title. I just expected more of him. It would have been nice if he would mention something about the disparate impact immigration has had on lower income black Americans.

tfb

[biko24601]

The problem with this web site and this author in particular is that -- unlike the genius of William F. Buckley (RIP) who treated those with whom he disagreed with respect and dignity -- the author begins his entire rhetorical argument with the term: the "Messiah of Illinois."

Then later, a mention of former president Bill Clinton is discussed as "Monica Lewitzky's former boyfriend." What's so frustrating about the way the author chooses to pen his argument is (and I know it's written for a conservative audience that all speak the same language and nod their heads in unison at the same time at this kind of condescending adolescence) that I -- a moderate Independent with some liberal views and some conservative views -- comes to these sites to try and engage in a healthy discussion about politics. But all I end up getting is this immature, sophomoric, small-minded muddled thinking.

Conservatives have every right to disagree with those who profess a liberal ideology, and vice versa. But instead of looking at Sen. Obama as a respectful, thoughtful, accomplished man and politician (as is John McCain and any number of strongly conservative political leaders), he's reduced to the condescending label "Messiah of Illinois."

Sir, your line of reasoning is way below your intelligence level. Instead of making an argument about Sen. Obama's relationship to his pastor (without any mention of the long history of relationships conservative Republicans have had with pastors that are just as incendiary and distorted as Rev. Wright) you only widen the gap of understanding and lower the level of discourse in our country.

Why can't -- as Bill Buckley did time and time again so eloquently -- intelligent men and women of both sides of the political spectrum come together and discuss differences without reverting to fourth grade logic? Your article is beneath you.

As a moderate Independent (whose approach to conservatism is akin to libertarianism -- and actually "real" conservatism... mostly found in the common sense practice of a thinker like Ron Paul) -- I find myself equally frustrated by extreme liberalism and petty conservatism.

How can you write this: "At some point in the future, it would be nice to be able to have thorough, open and unbiased conversations on important matters that confront both our country and our everyday lives without opponents of those ideas immediately yelling "racism", when everything you've written before this completely stifles the conversation before it can begin? The minute you refer to Sen. Obama as a "Messiah", you end the conversation -- one, I'm sorry, but he has a more legitimate claim for addressing than you do.

Now, that's a point that can be discussed more in-depth. Hopefully you’ll leave your “inner-child” at home and speak like a man.

[Matt Gauntt]

Biko,

You talk about intelligence. However, a simple google search shows that you are a schill for Obama, when you say here in your post that you are an independant looking for good conversation. Don't insult my intelligence by claiming to be something that you are not. There is nothing in any other posts that you have that would lead one to believe that you have a conservative idea.

[the art of spell casting]

Use your Greater Heal when you are healing one target that will take a lot of damage and will continue to do so for, at least, the next couple of seconds. If your target is not taking damage at a constant rate, be sure to cancel your Greater Heal halfway through if your target is still topped off, or nearly so. Then start casting your heal again. This is the case for most tanks, so spam your Greater Heal if you are healing your main tank.

[biko24601]

Wow. I haven't checked into this posting since March. But I did a "Google" search on my moniker online to retrace all the places that I left postings and it lead me back to here and I found that Matt Gauntt responded to my posting. Matt Googled my moniker and found that I have been going on websites and countering all the arguments used against Barack Obama as a sort of "viral" attack on stupidity.

That doesn't make me a "schill" for Obama. It makes me a Warrior for Obama. IF this is the Cultural Wars -- as you ultra conservatives like to refer to it -- then I'm taking the battle to you.

But what I meant by "Independent" is that I am not a memember of any political party. If I wanted to vote for a Republican, then I would because I'm not a party loyalist. I would vote for Green, Liberatarian, Constitutionalist, Democrat, and possibly a Republican -- but I think that party is in such bad shape that it's beyond repair at the moment -- if I liked the candiate.

I am a Warrior for Barack Obama because to me he HAS to win in November because I can't take another four to eight years of George W. Bush's policies. But Matt, I never said I was a Conservative. I am a Moderate or a Centrist. Actually, what I am is an "Urbanite". I am an Urban voter and I vote for a candidate who understands what life is like living in a city, like New York, or Chicago or Los Angeles.

However, I do have some Conservative views and in some instances think that Conservatives principles trump Liberal principles. For instance, I think we should drill in ANWAR and oppose gay marriage.

I just wanted to clarify because I'm not "schilling" for anyone (I'm not getting paid to write posts on internet sites) and I never said I was a "Conservative". Just because I share some conservative views, doesn't mean I want to align myself with your over-reaching, neo-con political agenda.

Perhaps if John McCain remained the John McCain of 2000 and stayed more in the Center instead of being co-opted by the far right wing of the Republican Party, I'd be voting for him right now instead of Obama.

So even though this posting was last visited in March when Hillary was still in the race, I'd like to add: good luck with that Sarah Palin pick! That one is a winner! I'd love to see you "schilling" for her "experience" with a straight face like some of the McCain "schills" have been doing on CNN and FOX lately. Since she's up there next to Russia, I'm sure she's got tons of international experience! (Oh, I just can't stop laughing about that one).